• Illustration: Project 2003 Enterprise Architecture
• Illustration: Outlook Integration with Project Server 2003

The latest version of Project, Microsoft's project-management software, continues the product's migration toward enterprise project management by adding some new features and improving collaboration. The overall goal remains the same: convince everyone with a stake in projects that they need Project to consolidate, analyze, and report on all the projects under way in an organization. But Project remains a complex product, and useful analysis of enterprise project data will require cooperation and coordination across an entire organization.

The Office Project 2003 Products

Project 2002 began the migration from a desktop to a server-based product. The goal was to transform Project from a product suitable for individuals managing single or a few projects into a product capable of coordinating projects across an entire enterprise. This migration continues with the split of Project 2003 into two products: Standard and Enterprise Project Management Solution.

Office Project Standard 2003. Project Standard is still useful for individual project managers to manage the schedule and resources for their projects, but this release can no longer be used to connect to Project Server.

Office Project 2003 Enterprise Project Management Solution. Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution is the umbrella name for three components: Project Professional 2003, Project Web Access, and Project Server 2003.

• Project Professional 2003: similar in features and functionality to Project Standard 2003, this is the client application for project managers who need to manage the schedule and resources for their projects and connect to Project Server 2003 to coordinate and analyze projects across the enterprise. Although Project Professional can be licensed on a stand-alone basis, the only difference between Professional and Standard is the ability to connect to and manage multiple projects through Project Server. Therefore, it only makes sense to license Project Professional in the context of EPM.
• Project Web Access: a browser-based interface for users who have a stake in the project, but who do not need all the tools in Project Professional to analyze and monitor the project information stored on Project Server.
• Project Server 2003: the central repository for project data that uses a SQL Server database for storing and analyzing data, and Internet Information Server (IIS) for publishing project data.

Although not technically part of EPM, Windows SharePoint Services, an add-on feature of Windows Server 2003, works with EPM to help manage ancillary project documentation, such as Word and PowerPoint documents that detail a project’s vision and mission, and Visio diagrams that detail other project workflow. (For an overview of how these components fit together, see "Project 2003 Enterprise Architecture".)

Incremental Improvements

Project 2003 is not a major release, but continues to build on the server architecture introduced in Project 2002, and contains customer-driven improvements that refine that architecture. Project 2003 ensures that there's a version of the product to accompany the release of the products in the Office 2003 System. It also includes support for Windows SharePoint Services (previous support was for SharePoint Team Services), and rolls up a lot of incremental improvements and some new features. For example, the Project team used the automatic error-reporting mechanism built into Windows and Office to fix more than 50 bugs in Project 2002, thereby drastically reducing the number of crashes.

Project Standard Improvements

Project Standard 2003 has incremental improvements, including a wizard that makes it easier to move data between Project and other members of the Office 2003 System, such as Word and PowerPoint, and printing improvements that makes it easier to print a report, such as a Gantt chart, as a single page on any printer.

These improvements are also part of Project Professional; the key difference between the products is that Project Standard 2003 can no longer be used to connect to or work with data from Project Server.

EPM Improvements

EPM's functionality falls into three major categories: resource management, organizational project analysis, and collaboration.

Resource management. The resource management features of EPM allow an organization to efficiently assign the best person to projects, ensure adequate resources exist for new projects, and establish project standards across the entire organization. For example, EPM resource management allows project managers to see what resources are already committed to projects across the entire organization, and it helps prevent individuals being scheduled for different tasks at the same time. The big plus is that EPM helps maintain project schedules that depend on resources that are not assigned to the project from start to finish (that is, the resources that are moved between projects).

Other resource management improvements include the ability for administrators to lock specific periods to ensure that users (resources) working on projects can only enter time for the current period, and the ability to report nonworking or nonproject time against administrative projects.

Organizational project analysis. EPM allows an organization to store the data about all projects under way in the organization in a SQL Server database. This allows both project managers and other stakeholders—such as employees working on the project or senior managers sponsoring the project—to analyze project data and monitor the project's status. Improvements to the organizational project analysis features allow users to select two or more projects in Project Professional and work with them as a single, consolidated master project.

Collaboration. EPM supports two forms of collaboration. First, Web-based timesheets and Outlook Calendar integration for project resources help reduce administration. Project Server 2003 integrates with recent versions of Outlook to allow project tasks to appear on users' Outlook Calendars alongside other appointments and meetings. (For an illustration, see "Outlook Integration with Project Server 2003".) Users can update their progress on calendar entries and changes are sent back to Project Server. Tasks on the Outlook Calendar can be displayed as Free/Busy Time, and nonworking time, such as vacations, can be sent from the user’s Outlook Calendar to Project Server.

The second level of collaboration does not come from Project Server per se, but rather from ties to Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) for management of ancillary project documents, such as Word documents which might contain the project’s missions and goals. Project Server tracks documents stored in WSS, and additional Project Web Parts are also available to extend the features of WSS. For instance, a Project Timesheet Web Part gives users a way to work with their timesheets online simply by logging onto WSS.

Still Complex Product

Project management is still a complex topic, and Project Standard (for stand-alone projects) and Professional (as the main client for EPM) remain tools for knowledgeable project managers. Therefore nonproject managers, such as the executive sponsors of a project, may find it easier to use Project Web Access to analyze project status.

EPM allows an organization to perform organization-wide analysis of projects, but in order for the information to be valuable, it will require organization-wide project standards. For example, EPM's Project Portfolio Analyzer feature makes it easier for management to see which projects in an organization are over budget.

Some of this project analysis potential comes from the fact that project data is stored in a SQL Server database. Plus, by making it easier for people working on projects to enter project data, more data about projects does become available for analysis. But for the analysis of the data to result in useful information, organizations will want to carefully define enterprise-wide project and resource codes in a manner that will be meaningful across all the projects in the organization. This is particularly true for multivalue fields, such as fields that define skills possessed by a particular resource.

Organization-wide business intelligence would be further strengthened by facilitating the movement of data, such as the time worked on a task, between Project Server and other systems, such as an organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Currently, Project can work with Microsoft's Solomon and Navision product lines, but interfacing with other Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) products or third-party ERP software from companies such as SAP requires using the Project Data Services API. In some cases, partners with a competency in Project supply connectors to these other ERP systems.

Operational Complexity

Although the Project Server component of EPM has administration improvements, such as better integration with Active Directory, Project Server remains a complex, albeit potentially powerful, product.

Installing EPM can be a complicated process, as it requires installing and updating Windows Server 2003, installing and updating SQL Server 2000, installing and configuring IIS without the FrontPage Extensions, installing and configuring Windows SharePoint Services, and then installing Project Server.

An organization that wants to evaluate Project Server, but does not want to install so many products for an evaluation, or that does not want to host Project internally, will benefit from partners who are offering hosted Project 2003 services.

Pricing, Availability, and Resources

Project Standard 2003 costs US$599. A version upgrade from Project Standard 2002, Project 2000, or Project 98 costs US$349.

Project Professional 2003 costs US$999, and an upgrade from Project Professional 2000 costs US$599. In some cases, Software Assurance and the Software Assurance Step-Up Promotion may allow customers to migrate from Project Standard to Project Professional 2003.

Like installation, licensing EPM can be complex due to the lack of integration among the components.

Using Project Server requires a Project Server Client Access License (CAL), and the estimated price for this CAL is US$133. A license for Project Professional includes a CAL for Project Server, but Project Web Access users will require their own CALs.

Project Server costs US$1,499 and includes five Project CALs. For companies that require nonemployees to access Project Server, an External Connector is also available for US$30,000.

Project Server requires Windows Server 2003 and a Windows Server 2003 CAL for each user who accesses the Project Server. It also requires SQL Server, which can be licensed on a server/CAL basis or per-processor—generally, per-processor licensing will be cheaper for more than 20 to 25 clients. For in-depth analysis of project data using the Project Portfolio Analyzer, SQL Server Enterprise Edition is required.

For more information on Project Standard2003, see www.microsoft.com/office/preview/project/standoverview.asp.

For more information on Project Enterprise Management Solution, see www.microsoft.com/office/preview/project/epmoverview.asp.

For more background on the migration of Project from a desktop to a server-based product, see "Enterprise Features Enhance Project 2002" on page 19 of the June 2002 Update.

For more information on Windows SharePoint Services, see "Windows SharePoint Services Supports Office Collaboration" on page 3 of the June 2003 Update.